Matrix manufacture



[W W; w H 4 J. L. ROUSSEAU. MATRIX MANUFACTURE. APPLICATION FILED AU'GH.1921.

1 422 136 Patented July 11,1922.

H IIHI ATTORNEVJ' .Tso s'rrss JOSEPH L. ROUSSEAU, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK,ASSIGNOR TO MERGEIITHALER LINOTYPE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF 1,a22,1ae.

Specification of Letters Patent.

NEW YORK.

; Patented July 11, 1922.

Application filed August 1, 1921. Serial No. 488,885.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Josnrrr L. Rousseau, acitizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Matrices Manufacture, of which the following is aspecification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to matrices, such as are used in commerciallinotype machines for the casting of type bars or slugs. These matrices,as heretofore made, have their character impressions located in thebottom walls of so-called routing notches formed in the casting edges ofthe matrices, so that the ordinary slug, which is'cast from suchmatrices, has its type characters mounted on pedestals rising above thequad line of the slug, the pedestals of'course being cast in the routingnotches. In printing from slugs of the above description, it frequentlyhappens that theink accumulates on the pedestals and finds its way ontothe printed sheet, thus producing what is known as smutting. This isparticularly true of the larger or more open characters, whichnecessarily expose a considerable portion of the pedestal surface bothinside and outside of the type characters. My present invention isintended to obviate the foregoing objections, and to that end, I proposeto manufacture the matrices in such manner that the customary routingnotches may be entirely eliminated. By thus doing away with the routingnotches, the slugs may be cast without pedestals and the cause of.

smutting thereby removed. 7

The precise ,mannerin which the foregoing results are accomplished willbe best understood from the detailed description .to follow. p 7Referring to the drawings:

Figs. 1 to 4 show on an enlarged'scale a matrix in different stages ofmanufacture;

Fig. 5 is a matrix; 7

Fig. 6 is an enlarged side elevation of a portion of a slug bearing typecharacters, some of which are cast from ordinary matrices, and others ofwhich are cast from perspective view of the finished natrices producedin accordance with my invention; and

Fig.-,7 is a face view of Fig. 6. The first step in my improvementconsists in providing a suitable over-sized blank, such as that shown-inFig. 1. As will be observed, this blank A is formed on its characteredge with a pad or raised portion B which is intended to add enoughexcess metal to that edge of the blank to permit the subsequentoperations hereinafter descrlbed. The pad B is shown as extendingthroughout the length of the blank edge, as preferred, but it mightsuflice to have it located merely in the vicinity of characterlmpression. The blank is produced in the regular way, namely, bystamping it out of a bar or sheet of raw material (brass), and then,.ifdesired or necessary, trimming it down to the desired size.

The second ste consists in forming a very shallow notch C in thecharacter edge of the blank, as by cutting or routing out a portion ofthe pad B, in the manner indicated in Fig. 2. In this figure, the finaledge of the matrix is generally indicated'by the dotted line D-D, and itis pointed out that the notch C stops short of this final matrix edgeThe purpose of cutting out the notch C is to remove or take off thetough outer skin of the blank edge and to expose a softer bed of metalfor the punching of the character impression. By wa of explanation, itmay be stated. that the stamping out of the blank and thesubsequent-trimming'operations have the effect of condensing orcompacting the metal along its edges, thus rendering it difficult todrive the punch directly into the edge of the blank withsatisfactoryresults. This difliculty is herein overcome, as aboveindicated, by taking off the tough outer skin of the blank edge, whichis permitted by producing the blank inits' ori inal form with the pad ofexcess metal before mentioned.

The third'step consists in punching the character impression E in thebottom wall of the notch C, which operation as just explained may besuccessfully performed by reason of the comparatively soft condition ofthe metal exposed to the action of the punch. It will be noted that thecharacter impression E is driven below the final edge of the matrix asindicated generally by the dotted line D-D, the depth of the strikebeing such that the face of the character impression will be located atthe standard 7 matrix edge.

the milling operation.

distance from the final matrix edge which in this country is.043.

The fourth and last step of my improvement consists in dressing down theedge of the blank to produce the final m'atrixedge,

or more specifically, in millin down the ad B to the dotted line D n.This is cone with the aid of suitable gage devices,

which determine the exact amount of metal to be removed in arriving atthe final matrix edge. The effect of such step is indibe no excess ofmetal at that point to be removed. However, the mode of proceduredescribed is preferred, as any distortion of the metal during thepunching operation is thereby remedied *the milling process.

It will berund'erstood that my improvement deals only with'one phase ofmanufac ltev and that various other operations must be performed on theblank, in addition to thoseabove described, to bring it to its finalform as shownin Fig. 5. These operations are well known to those skilledin the art and therefore require no mention.

The effect of my improvement is illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7, which showa slug F bearing onitsmpper edge a line of type characters, those markedl'being produced from the newmatrices and-those marked 2 being produced.from the old matrices. As will be observed, the characters 1 are castdirectly on the, edge of the slug body, whereas the characters'Qare'cast on pedestals 3 rising from said edge. In printing from thecharacters '2, therefore, smutting may occur, due to the presence of thepedestals 3, but no such objection may arise in the case of thecharactersl, due to the absence of the offending pedestals. It ispointed out,

however, that the type characters in either case have their" printingfaces arranged at the same level or at thesame distance from the quadline'o-f the sl1 1g,"so that matrices made in accordance with myimprovement may be used freely with any of'the old matrices and alsowith the standard form of mold employed in the commercial linotypemachines. 7 7

While I have set forth the several steps which I propose to follow,these steps might bevariously modified as -to sequence or otherwisewithout departing from the spirit of my invention. I' therefore desireit to be understood'that I do not limit myself to any specific mode ofprocedure except in so far as such limitations are specified in theclaims. It should also be understood that, although 'herein'illustratedin connection with a matrix having a single character, the invention isequally applicable to matrices having two or more characters.

Having thus described f my invention, What I claim isias follows; i

1; In the art of'manu-facturing matrices,

providing an'oversizedblank, forming in the edge "of said blank a notchof a depth not to extend below the final edge of the matrix, punchingthe character impression in the bottoin' wall ofsaid notch andof a depthto extend below the finalmatrix edge, and

thereafter dressing-down the blank edge to produce the finalmatrixedge-J 2. In the art of manufacturing matrices, providing a blank with apad of excess metal on its character edge, forminga notch in said pad,punching the character impression in the bottom wall of saidnotch, andthereafter dressing down the padof excess metal to eradicatefsaid notchand to producethe fi'nal matrix edge;

matrices,

bottom wall of'said notch and of a 'depth. to

extend below the finalmatrix edge, and thereafter milling down the blankedge to produce the final matrixedge.

"5.1111 he art or ufacturing matrices, providing a blank withia pad ofiexcess metalonits character edge, punchingthe character impressionthrough said pad of excess metal and ofadepthfto exten d below the finaledge of the matrix, and thereafter dressing down the pad of excess metalto produce said final matrix edge. I

'In testimony whereof, I have aflixed my signatiirehereto. 5

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